When Paul Jobs was mustered out of the Coast Guard after World War II, he made a wager with his crewmates. They had arrived in San Francisco, where their ship was decommissioned, and Paul bet that he would find himself a wife within two weeks. He was a taut, tattooed engine mechanic, six feet tall, with a passing resemblance to James Dean. But it wasn’t his looks that got him a date with Clara Hagopian, a sweet-humored daughter of Armenian immigrants. It was the fact that he and his friends had a car, unlike the group she had originally planned to go out with that evening. Ten days later, in March 1946, Paul got engaged to Clara and won his wager. It would turn out to be a happy marriage, one that lasted until death parted them more than forty years later. Paul Reinhold Jobs had been raised on a dairy farm in Germantown, Wisconsin. Even though his father was an alcoholic and sometimes abusive, Paul ended up with a gentle and calm disposition under his leathery exterior. After dropping out of high school, he wandered through the Midwest picking up work as a mechanic until, at age nineteen, he joined the Coast Guard, even though he didn’t know how to swim. He was deployed on the USS General M. C. Meigs and spent much of the war ferrying troops to Italy for General Patton. His talent as a machinist and fireman earned him commendations, but he occasionally found himself in minor trouble and never rose above the rank of seaman. Clara was born in New Jersey, where her parents had landed after fleeing the Turks in Armenia, and they moved to the Mission District of San Francisco when she was a child. She had a secret that she rarely mentioned to anyone: She had been married before, but her husband had been killed in the war. So when she met Paul Jobs on that first date, she was primed to start a new life. Like many who lived through the war, they had experienced enough excitement that, when it was over, they desired simply to settle down, raise a family, and lead a less eventful life. They had little money, so they moved to Wisconsin and lived with Paul’s parents for a few years, then headed for Indiana, where he got a job as a machinist for International Harvester. His passion was tinkering with old cars, and he made money in his spare time buying, restoring, and selling them. Eventually he quit his day job to become a full-time used car salesman. Clara, however, loved San Francisco, and in 1952 she convinced her husband to move back there. They got an apartment in the Sunset District facing the Pacific, just south of Golden Gate Park, and he took a job working for a finance company as a “repo man,” picking the locks of cars whose owners hadn’t paid their loans and repossessing them. He also bought, repaired, and sold some of the cars, making a decent enough living in the process. There was, however, something missing in their lives. They wanted children, but Clara had suffered an ectopic pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg was implanted in a fallopian tube rather than the uterus, and she had been unable to have any. So by 1955, after nine years of marriage, they were looking to adopt a child. Like Paul Jobs, Joanne Schieble was from a rural Wisconsin family of German heritage. Her father, Arthur Schieble, had immigrated to the outskirts of Green Bay, where he and his wife owned a mink farm and dabbled successfully in various other businesses, including real estate and photoengraving. He was very strict, especially regarding his daughter’s relationships, and he had strongly disapproved of her first love, an artist who was not a Catholic. Thus it was no surprise that he threatened to cut Joanne off completely when, as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, she fell in love with Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, a Muslim teaching assistant from Syria. Jandali was the youngest of nine children in a prominent Syrian family. His father owned oil refineries and multiple other businesses, with large holdings in Damascus and Homs, and at one point pretty much controlled the price of wheat in the region. His mother, he later said, was a “traditional Muslim woman” who was a “conservative, obedient housewife.” Like the Schieble family, the Jandalis put a premium on education. Abdulfattah was sent to a Jesuit boarding school, even though he was Muslim, and he got an undergraduate degree at the American University in Beirut before entering the University of Wisconsin to pursue a doctoral degree in political science. In the summer of 1954, Joanne went with Abdulfattah to Syria. They spent two months in Homs, where she learned from his family to cook Syrian dishes. When they returned to Wisconsin she discovered that she was pregnant. They were both twenty-three, but they decided not to get married. Her father was dying at the time, and he had threatened to disown her if she wed Abdulfattah. Nor was abortion an easy option in a small Catholic community. So in early 1955, Joanne traveled to San Francisco, where she was taken into the care of a kindly doctor who sheltered unwed mothers, delivered their babies, and quietly arranged closed adoptions. Joanne had one requirement: Her child must be adopted by college graduates. So the doctor arranged for the baby to be placed with a lawyer and his wife. But when a boy was born—on February 24, 1955—the designated couple decided that they wanted a girl and backed out. Thus it was that the boy became the son not of a lawyer but of a high school dropout with a passion for mechanics and his salt-of-the-earth wife who was working as a bookkeeper. Paul and Clara named their new baby Steven Paul Jobs. When Joanne found out that her baby had been placed with a couple who had not even graduated from high school, she refused to sign the adoption papers. The standoff lasted weeks, even after the baby had settled into the Jobs household. Eventually Joanne relented, with the stipulation that the couple promise—indeed sign a pledge—to fund a savings account to pay for the boy’s college education. There was another reason that Joanne was balky about signing the adoption papers. Her father was about to die, and she planned to marry Jandali soon after. She held out hope, she would later tell family members, sometimes tearing up at the memory, that once they were married, she could get their baby boy back. Arthur Schieble died in August 1955, after the adoption was finalized. Just after Christmas that year, Joanne and Abdulfattah were married in St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church in Green Bay. He got his PhD in international politics the next year, and then they had another child, a girl named Mona. After she and Jandali divorced in 1962, Joanne embarked on a dreamy and peripatetic life that her daughter, who grew up to become the acclaimed novelist Mona Simpson, would capture in her book Anywhere but Here. Because Steve’s adoption had been closed, it would be twenty years before they would all find each other. Steve Jobs knew from an early age that he was adopted. “My parents were very open with me about that,” he recalled. He had a vivid memory of sitting on the lawn of his house, when he was six or seven years old, telling the girl who lived across the street. “So does that mean your real parents didn’t want you?” the girl asked. “Lightning bolts went off in my head,” according to Jobs. “I remember running into the house, crying. And my parents said, ‘No, you have to understand.’ They were very serious and looked me straight in the eye. They said, ‘We specifically picked you out.’ Both of my parents said that and repeated it slowly for me. And they put an emphasis on every word in that sentence.” Abandoned. Chosen. Special. Those concepts became part of who Jobs was and how he regarded himself. His closest friends think that the knowledge that he was given up at birth left some scars. “I think his desire for complete control of whatever he makes derives directly from his personality and the fact that he was abandoned at birth,” said one longtime colleague, Del Yocam. “He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.” Greg Calhoun, who became close to Jobs right after college, saw another effect. “Steve talked to me a lot about being abandoned and the pain that caused,” he said. “It made him independent. He followed the beat of a different drummer, and that came from being in a different world than he was born into.” Later in life, when he was the same age his biological father had been when he abandoned him, Jobs would father and abandon a child of his own. (He eventually took responsibility for her.) Chrisann Brennan, the mother of that child, said that being put up for adoption left Jobs “full of broken glass,” and it helps to explain some of his behavior. “He who is abandoned is an abandoner,” she said. Andy Hertzfeld, who worked with Jobs at Apple in the early 1980s, is among the few who remained close to both Brennan and Jobs. “The key question about Steve is why he can’t control himself at times from being so reflexively cruel and harmful to some people,” he said. “That goes back to being abandoned at birth. The real underlying problem was the theme of abandonment in Steve’s life.” Jobs dismissed this. “There’s some notion that because I was abandoned, I worked very hard so I could do well and make my parents wish they had me back, or some such nonsense, but that’s ridiculous,” he insisted. “Knowing I was adopted may have made me feel more independent, but I have never felt abandoned. I’ve always felt special. My parents made me feel special.” He would later bristle whenever anyone referred to Paul and Clara Jobs as his “adoptive” parents or implied that they were not his “real” parents. “They were my parents 1,000%,” he said. When speaking about his biological parents, on the other hand, he was curt: “They were my sperm and egg bank. That’s not harsh, it’s just the way it was, a sperm bank thing, nothing more.” Silicon Valley The childhood that Paul and Clara Jobs created for their new son was, in many ways, a stereotype of the late 1950s. When Steve was two they adopted a girl they named Patty, and three years later they moved to a tract house in the suburbs. The finance company where Paul worked as a repo man, CIT, had transferred him down to its Palo Alto office, but he could not afford to live there, so they landed in a subdivision in Mountain View, a less expensive town just to the south. There Paul tried to pass along his love of mechanics and cars. “Steve, this is your workbench now,” he said as he marked off a section of the table in their garage. Jobs remembered being impressed by his father’s focus on craftsmanship. “I thought my dad’s sense of design was pretty good,” he said, “because he knew how to build anything. If we needed a cabinet, he would build it. When he built our fence, he gave me a hammer so I could work with him.” Fifty years later the fence still surrounds the back and side yards of the house in Mountain View. As Jobs showed it off to me, he caressed the stockade panels and recalled a lesson that his father implanted deeply in him. It was important, his father said, to craft the backs of cabinets and fences properly, even though they were hidden. “He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.” His father continued to refurbish and resell used cars, and he festooned the garage with pictures of his favorites. He would point out the detailing of the design to his son: the lines, the vents, the chrome, the trim of the seats. After work each day, he would change into his dungarees and retreat to the garage, often with Steve tagging along. “I figured I could get him nailed down with a little mechanical ability, but he really wasn’t interested in getting his hands dirty,” Paul later recalled. “He never really cared too much about mechanical things.” “I wasn’t that into fixing cars,” Jobs admitted. “But I was eager to hang out with my dad.” Even as he was growing more aware that he had been adopted, he was becoming more attached to his father. One day when he was about eight, he discovered a photograph of his father from his time in the Coast Guard. “He’s in the engine room, and he’s got his shirt off and looks like James Dean. It was one of those Oh wow moments for a kid. Wow, oooh, my parents were actually once very young and really good-looking.” Through cars, his father gave Steve his first exposure to electronics. “My dad did not have a deep understanding of electronics, but he’d encountered it a lot in automobiles and other things he would fix. He showed me the rudiments of electronics, and I got very interested in that.” Even more interesting were the trips to scavenge for parts. “Every weekend, there’d be a junkyard trip. We’d be looking for a generator, a carburetor, all sorts of components.” He remembered watching his father negotiate at the counter. “He was a good bargainer, because he knew better than the guys at the counter what the parts should cost.” This helped fulfill the pledge his parents made when he was adopted. “My college fund came from my dad paying $50 for a Ford Falcon or some other beat-up car that didn’t run, working on it for a few weeks, and selling it for $250—and not telling the IRS.” The Jobses’ house and the others in their neighborhood were built by the real estate developer Joseph Eichler, whose company spawned more than eleven thousand homes in various California subdivisions between 1950 and 1974. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of simple modern homes for the American “everyman,” Eichler built inexpensive houses that featured floor-to-ceiling glass walls, open floor plans, exposed post-and-beam construction, concrete slab floors, and lots of sliding glass doors. “Eichler did a great thing,” Jobs said on one of our walks around the neighborhood. “His houses were smart and cheap and good. They brought clean design and simple taste to lower-income people. They had awesome little features, like radiant heating in the floors. You put carpet on them, and we had nice toasty floors when we were kids.” Jobs said that his appreciation for Eichler homes instilled in him a passion for making nicely designed products for the mass market. “I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much,” he said as he pointed out the clean elegance of the houses. “It was the original vision for Apple. That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac. That’s what we did with the iPod.” Across the street from the Jobs family lived a man who had become successful as a real estate agent. “He wasn’t that bright,” Jobs recalled, “but he seemed to be making a fortune. So my dad thought, ‘I can do that.’ He worked so hard, I remember. He took these night classes, passed the license test, and got into real estate. Then the bottom fell out of the market.” As a result, the family found itself financially strapped for a year or so while Steve was in elementary school. His mother took a job as a bookkeeper for Varian Associates, a company that made scientific instruments, and they took out a second mortgage. One day his fourth-grade teacher asked him, “What is it you don’t understand about the universe?” Jobs replied, “I don’t understand why all of a sudden my dad is so broke.” He was proud that his father never adopted a servile attitude or slick style that may have made him a better salesman. “You had to suck up to people to sell real estate, and he wasn’t good at that and it wasn’t in his nature. I admired him for that.” Paul Jobs went back to being a mechanic. His father was calm and gentle, traits that his son later praised more than emulated. He was also resolute. Jobs described one example: Nearby was an engineer who was working at Westinghouse. He was a single guy, beatnik type. He had a girlfriend. She would babysit me sometimes. Both my parents worked, so I would come here right after school for a couple of hours. He would get drunk and hit her a couple of times. She came over one night, scared out of her wits, and he came over drunk, and my dad stood him down—saying “She’s here, but you’re not coming in.” He stood right there. We like to think everything was idyllic in the 1950s, but this guy was one of those engineers who had messed-up lives. What made the neighborhood different from the thousands of other spindly-tree subdivisions across America was that even the ne’er-do-wells tended to be engineers. “When we moved here, there were apricot and plum orchards on all of these corners,” Jobs recalled. “But it was beginning to boom because of military investment.” He soaked up the history of the valley and developed a yearning to play his own role. Edwin Land of Polaroid later told him about being asked by Eisenhower to help build the U-2 spy plane cameras to see how real the Soviet threat was. The film was dropped in canisters and returned to the NASA Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, not far from where Jobs lived. “The first computer terminal I ever saw was when my dad brought me to the Ames Center,” he said. “I fell totally in love with it.” Other defense contractors sprouted nearby during the 1950s. The Lockheed Missiles and Space Division, which built submarine-launched ballistic missiles, was founded in 1956 next to the NASA Center; by the time Jobs moved to the area four years later, it employed twenty thousand people. A few hundred yards away, Westinghouse built facilities that produced tubes and electrical transformers for the missile systems. “You had all these military companies on the cutting edge,” he recalled. “It was mysterious and high-tech and made living here very exciting.” In the wake of the defense industries there arose a booming economy based on technology. Its roots stretched back to 1938, when David Packard and his new wife moved into a house in Palo Alto that had a shed where his friend Bill Hewlett was soon ensconced. The house had a garage—an appendage that would prove both useful and iconic in the valley—in which they tinkered around until they had their first product, an audio oscillator. By the 1950s, Hewlett-Packard was a fast-growing company making technical instruments. Fortunately there was a place nearby for entrepreneurs who had outgrown their garages. In a move that would help transform the area into the cradle of the tech revolution, Stanford University’s dean of engineering, Frederick Terman, created a seven-hundred-acre industrial park on university land for private companies that could commercialize the ideas of his students. Its first tenant was Varian Associates, where Clara Jobs worked. “Terman came up with this great idea that did more than anything to cause the tech industry to grow up here,” Jobs said. By the time Jobs was ten, HP had nine thousand employees and was the blue-chip company where every engineer seeking financial stability wanted to work. The most important technology for the region’s growth was, of course, the semiconductor. William Shockley, who had been one of the inventors of the transistor at Bell Labs in New Jersey, moved out to Mountain View and, in 1956, started a company to build transistors using silicon rather than the more expensive germanium that was then commonly used. But Shockley became increasingly erratic and abandoned his silicon transistor project, which led eight of his engineers—most notably Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore—to break away to form Fairchild Semiconductor. That company grew to twelve thousand employees, but it fragmented in 1968, when Noyce lost a power struggle to become CEO. He took Gordon Moore and founded a company that they called Integrated Electronics Corporation, which they soon smartly abbreviated to Intel. Their third employee was Andrew Grove, who later would grow the company by shifting its focus from memory chips to microprocessors. Within a few years there would be more than fifty companies in the area making semiconductors. The exponential growth of this industry was correlated with the phenomenon famously discovered by Moore, who in 1965 drew a graph of the speed of integrated circuits, based on the number of transistors that could be placed on a chip, and showed that it doubled about every two years, a trajectory that could be expected to continue. This was reaffirmed in 1971, when Intel was able to etch a complete central processing unit onto one chip, the Intel 4004, which was dubbed a “microprocessor.” Moore’s Law has held generally true to this day, and its reliable projection of performance to price allowed two generations of young entrepreneurs, including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, to create cost projections for their forward-leaning products. The chip industry gave the region a new name when Don Hoefler, a columnist for the weekly trade paper Electronic News, began a series in January 1971 entitled “Silicon Valley USA.” The forty-mile Santa Clara Valley, which stretches from South San Francisco through Palo Alto to San Jose, has as its commercial backbone El Camino Real, the royal road that once connected California’s twenty-one mission churches and is now a bustling avenue that connects companies and startups accounting for a third of the venture capital investment in the United States each year. “Growing up, I got inspired by the history of the place,” Jobs said. “That made me want to be a part of it.” Like most kids, he became infused with the passions of the grown-ups around him. “Most of the dads in the neighborhood did really neat stuff, like photovoltaics and batteries and radar,” Jobs recalled. “I grew up in awe of that stuff and asking people about it.” The most important of these neighbors, Larry Lang, lived seven doors away. “He was my model of what an HP engineer was supposed to be: a big ham radio operator, hard-core electronics guy,” Jobs recalled. “He would bring me stuff to play with.” As we walked up to Lang’s old house, Jobs pointed to the driveway. “He took a carbon microphone and a battery and a speaker, and he put it on this driveway. He had me talk into the carbon mike and it amplified out of the speaker.” Jobs had been taught by his father that microphones always required an electronic amplifier. “So I raced home, and I told my dad that he was wrong.” “No, it needs an amplifier,” his father assured him. When Steve protested otherwise, his father said he was crazy. “It can’t work without an amplifier. There’s some trick.” “I kept saying no to my dad, telling him he had to see it, and finally he actually walked down with me and saw it. And he said, ‘Well I’ll be a bat out of hell.’” Jobs recalled the incident vividly because it was his first realization that his father did not know everything. Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents. He had always admired his father’s competence and savvy. “He was not an educated man, but I had always thought he was pretty damn smart. He didn’t read much, but he could do a lot. Almost everything mechanical, he could figure it out.” Yet the carbon microphone incident, Jobs said, began a jarring process of realizing that he was in fact more clever and quick than his parents. “It was a very big moment that’s burned into my mind. When I realized that I was smarter than my parents, I felt tremendous shame for having thought that. I will never forget that moment.” This discovery, he later told friends, along with the fact that he was adopted, made him feel apart—detached and separate—from both his family and the world. Another layer of awareness occurred soon after. Not only did he discover that he was brighter than his parents, but he discovered that they knew this. Paul and Clara Jobs were loving parents, and they were willing to adapt their lives to suit a son who was very smart—and also willful. They would go to great lengths to accommodate him. And soon Steve discovered this fact as well. “Both my parents got me. They felt a lot of responsibility once they sensed that I was special. They found ways to keep feeding me stuff and putting me in better schools. They were willing to defer to my needs.” So he grew up not only with a sense of having once been abandoned, but also with a sense that he was special. In his own mind, that was more important in the formation of his personality. School Even before Jobs started elementary school, his mother had taught him how to read. This, however, led to some problems once he got to school. “I was kind of bored for the first few years

50. All you can do is to try your best. Even with those small steps, you're closer to your goal than you were yesterday. 我们能做的只是拼尽全力，即使迈出的步子再小，也比昨天要更接近自己的目标。 51. A smile is the shortest distance between two people. 微笑是人与人之间最短的距离。 52. Do or do not. There is no try. 要么做，要么滚！没有试试看这一说。 53. Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow. 勇气就是虽感恐惧，但仍会前行。 54. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. 人可以被毁灭，但不可以被打败。 55. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. 真正快乐的人是那种在走弯路时也不忘享受风景的人。 56. No dream is too big, and no dreamer is too small. 梦想再大也不嫌大，追梦的人再小也不嫌小。 57. It doesn't matter how many times you fail. What matters is how many times you stand up and try again. 失败多少次不重要，重要的是你能重新站起来多少次，并且继续前行。 58. Silence is the most powerful cry. 沉默是最有力的呐喊。《美丽人生》 59. A little consideration, a little thought for others makes all the difference. 一点点体贴，一点点为他人着想，会让一切都不一样。 60. Stop waiting for things to happen.Go out and make them happen. 别指望事情会自然发生，行动起来，让它们变成可能！ 61. Don't look forward to tomorrow, don't miss yesterday, to grasp today. 不憧憬明天，不留念昨天，只把握今天。 62. Now we don't call it alive. It's just not to die. 我们现在不叫活着，这只是没有死去。《疯狂原始人》 63. You can change your life if you want to. Sometimes you have to be hard on yourself, but you can change it completely. 有志者事竟成。有时虽劳其筋骨，但命运可以彻底改变。《唐顿庄园》 64. Time will bring a surprise, if you believe. 时间会带来惊喜，如果你相信的话。《浮生物语》 65. What others think is not important . How you feel about yourself is all that matters. 别人怎么想并不重要，你怎么看自己才是关键。 66. Don't cry because it is over,smile because it happened. 不要因为结束而哭泣，微笑吧，因为你曾经拥有。 67. Tomorrow is never clear. Our time is here. 明天是未知的，我们还是享受此刻吧！《摇滚夏令营》 68. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. 生活要么大胆尝试，要么什么都不是。 69. Pursue excellence and success will follow. 追求卓越，成功自然来。《三傻大闹宝莱坞》 70. Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world. 爬上山顶并不是为了让全世界看到你，而是让你看到整个世界。 71. Every step towards your dream today is a step away from your regret tomorrow. 今日为梦想所付出的每一份努力都会减少明日的一份后悔。 72. It's never too late to be what you might have been. 勇敢做自己，永远都不迟。（乔治·艾略特） 73. It's time to start living the life you've imagined. 是时候开始过自己想要的生活了！ 95. How can men succumb to force? 男人怎么能屈服于“武力”之下？《海贼王》 96. Life is like live TV show. There is no rehearsal. 人生没有彩排，只有现场直播。 97. Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman. 穿着破旧，人们记住衣服；穿着无瑕，人们则记住衣服里的女人。(Coco Chanel) 98. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. 希望是一件好事，也许是人间至善，而美好的事永不消逝。《肖申克的救赎》 99. There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy. 有太多太多美好的理由让你笑对生活。 100. Where the more different you are, the better. 你们之间越是不同，越好。(Glee) 101. I'm only brave when I have to be. Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble. 我只在必要时才勇敢，勇敢并不代表你要到处闯祸。《狮子王》 102. Behind every successful man there's a lot of unsuccessful years. 每个牛B的成功者都经历过苦B的岁月。(鲍博.布朗) 103. If you want something done, do it yourself. 靠谁都不如靠自己。《第五元素》 104. Life is a wonderful journey. Make it your journey and not someone else's. 生命是一段精彩旅程，要活的有自己的样子，而不是别人的影子。 105. No matter how many mistakes you make or how slowly you progress, you are already ahead of those who never tried. 无论你犯了多少错，或者进步得有多慢，你都走在了那些不曾尝试的人的前面。 106. Some things are so important that they force us to overcome our fears. 总有些更重要的事情，赋予我们打败恐惧的勇气。 107. Say to yourself: "No matter how many obstacles I encounter in life, I will do all that I can to complete the whole course." 请对自己说：无论生活之路上会遇到多少障碍，我会竭尽所能地跑完这一程。 108. No cross, no crown. 不经历风雨，怎么见彩虹。 109. Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. 与其努力成功，不如努力成为有价值的人。(爱因斯坦) 110. Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even. 记住：当人生很苦逼的时候，你要保持淡定。 111. If you're brave enough to say GOODBYE, life will reward you with a new HELLO. 只要你勇敢地说出再见，生活一定会给你一个新的开始。 112. Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. 对的那条路，往往不是最好走的。 113. Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. 只要相信自己，你就会懂得如何去生活。 114. In life it's not where you go. It's who you travel with. 生命中，重要的不是你去哪里，而是与谁同行。 115. Life is like a rainbow. You don't always know what's on the other side, but you know it's there. 生活像一道彩虹，你不知道另一端通向哪里，但你会知道，它总是在那里。 116. When the world says,"Give up!"Hope whispers,"Try it one more time." 当全世界都在说“放弃”的时候，希望却在耳边轻轻地说：“再试一次吧”！ 117. I don't care about other questions and I just try to be myself. 我不在乎别人的质疑，我只会做好自己。 118. Attempt doesn't necessarily bring success, but giving up definitely leads to failure. 努力不一定成功，但放弃一定失败！ 119. The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. 对明天最好的准备就是今天做到最好。 120. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. 你已经一无所有，没有什么道理不顺心而为。(乔布斯) 121. Life is a journey, one that is much better traveled with a companion by our side. 人生是一场旅程，我们最好结伴同行。 122. Sometimes you have to fall before you can fly. 有时候，你得先跌下去，才能飞起来。 123. If you are able to appreciate beauty in the ordinary, your life will be more vibrant. 如果你擅于欣赏平凡中的美好，你的生活会更加多姿多彩。 124. Be who you are, and never ever apologize for that! 坚持做自己，并永远不要为此而后悔！ 125. Consider the bad times as down payment for the good times. Hang in there. 把苦日子当做好日子的首付，坚持就是胜利！ 126. Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger. 与其祈求生活平淡点，还不如祈求自己强大点。 127. Everybody can fly without wings when they hold on to their dreams. 坚持自己的梦想，即使没有翅膀也能飞翔。 128. There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power. 没有伟大的意志力，便没有雄才大略。 129. You can't change your situation. The only thing that you can change is how you choose to deal with it. 境遇难以改变，你能改变的唯有面对它时的态度。 130. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 凡是值得做的事，就值得做好。 131. Perfection is not just about control.It's also about letting go. 完美不仅在于控制，也在于释放。 《黑天鹅》 132. Dream is what makes you happy, even when you are just trying. 梦想就是一种让你感到坚持就是幸福的东西。 133. Never frown,because you never know who is falling in love with your smile. 别愁眉不展，因为你不知道谁会爱上你的笑容。 134. It's easy once you know how. 一旦你明白，就会很简单。 135. In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different. 要做到不可替代，就要与众不同。 136. I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate. 宁愿失败地做你爱做的事情，也不要成功地做你恨做的事情。(George Burns) 137. Don't hide. Run! You'll make it to tomorrow. 别躲避，奔跑吧，你就会找到明天。 138. Life comes with many challenges.The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of. 生活充满了挑战，唯有勇敢面对并自我掌控，我们才能克服恐惧。(安吉丽娜·朱莉) 139. Life doesn't just happen to you; you receive everything in your life based on what you've given. 一切发生在你身上的都不是碰巧。你获得什么，在于你付出了什么。 140.You are more beautiful than you think. 你，要比你想象的更美丽。 141. Throughout life's complications, you should maintain such a sense of elegance. 不管生活有多不容易，你都要守住自己的那一份优雅。 142. When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on so long in the first place. 每当你想要放弃的时候，就想想是为了什么才一路坚持到现在。 143. Enjoy your youth.You'll never be younger than you are at this very moment. 好好享受青春，你再也不会有哪个时刻会比此时更年轻了。 144. You'd better bring, cause I'll bring every I've got it. 你最好全神贯注，因为我定会全力以赴！ 145. Take time to enjoy the simple things in life. 慢慢享受生活中的简单。 146. As long as you are still alive, you will definitely encounter the good things in life. 只要活着就一定会遇上好事。 147. Hold on, it gets better than you know. 挺住，事情会比你想像中要好！ 148. If you are fine,the sun will always shine. 你若安好，便是晴天。 149. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. 磨难会让你更强大。 150. Every life deserves our respect. 每一个生命都应该被尊重。 151. The best feeling in the world is when you know your heart is smiling. 世间最美好的感受，就是发现自己的心在笑。 152. Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion. 永远不要低估一颗冠军的心。(Rudy Tomjanovich) 153. There is nothing permanent except change. 唯一不变的是变化。 154. The difference between successful persons and others is that they really act. 成功者和其他人最大的区别就是，他们真正动手去做了。 155. Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you. 不要随波逐流，要引领潮流。(Margaret Thatcher) 156. People pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who cannot afford a warm beverage. 人们提前买咖啡，让付不起的人享受温暖。 157. No one is born a genius.Just keep on doing what you like and that itself is a talent. 哪有什么天才！坚持做你喜欢的事情，这本身就是一种天赋。(大野智) 158. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. 世界是一本书，不旅行的人只读了其中一页。 159. You can create something more glorious than the championship. 你可以创造比冠军更荣耀的事。 160. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. 永远没有第二次机会，给人留下第一印象。 161. You can always be a worse version of "him", or better version of yourself. 你不是要做一个单纯优秀的人，而是要做一个不可替代的人。 162. Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life. 让每一天都有机会成为你人生中最美好的一天。 163. Honesty is the best policy. 做人以诚信为本。 164. To a crazy ship all winds are contrary. 对于一只漫无目标的船而言，任何方向的风都是逆风。 165. The outer world you see is a reflection of your inner self. 你看到什么样的世界，你就拥有什么样的内心。 166. Strike while the iron is hot. 趁热打铁。 167. Knowing what you cannot do is far more important than knowing what you are capable of. 知道自己不能做什么远比知道自己能做什么重要。 168. People cry, not because they're weak. It's because they've been strong for too long. 哭泣，不代表脆弱，只因坚强了太久。 169. Don't let yesterday use up too much of today. 别留念昨天了，把握好今天吧。(Will Rogers) 170. If you are not brave enough, no one will back you up. 你不勇敢，没人替你坚强。 171. If you don't build your dream, someone will hire you to build theirs. 如果你没有梦想，那么你只能为别人的梦想打工。 172. Beauty is all around, if you just open your heart to see. 只要你给自己机会，你会发现你的世界可以很美丽。 173. The difference in winning and losing is most often...not quitting. 赢与输的差别通常是--不放弃。(华特·迪士尼) 174. I am ordinary yet unique. 我很平凡，但我独一无二。 175. I like people who make me laugh in spite of myself. 我喜欢那些让我笑起来的人，就算是我不想笑的时候。 176. Image a new story for your life and start living it. 为你的生命想一个全新剧本，并去倾情出演吧！ 177. I'd rather be a happy fool than a sad sage. 做个悲伤的智者，不如做个开心的傻子。 178. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. 未来属于那些相信梦想之美的人。(埃莉诺·罗斯福) 179. Even if you get no applause, you should accept a curtain call gracefully and appreciate your own efforts. 即使没有人为你鼓掌，也要优雅的谢幕，感谢自己的认真付出。 180. Don't let dream just be your dream. 别让梦想只停留在梦里。 181. A day without laughter is a day wasted. 没有笑声的一天是浪费了的一天。(卓别林) 182. Travel and see the world; afterwards, you will be able to put your concerns in perspective. 去旅行吧，见的世面多了，你会发现原来在意的那些结根本算不了什么。 183. The key to acquiring proficiency in any task is repetition. 任何事情成功关键都是熟能生巧。《生活大爆炸》 184. You can be happy no matter what. 开心一点吧，管它会怎样。 185. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. 今天的好计划胜过明天的完美计划。 186. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'! 一切皆有可能！“不可能”的意思是：“不，可能。”(奥黛丽·赫本) 187. Life isn't fair, but no matter your circumstances, you have to give it your all. 生活是不公平的，不管你的境遇如何，你只能全力以赴。 188. No matter how hard it is, just keep going because you only fail when you give up. 无论多么艰难，都要继续前进，因为只有你放弃的那一刻，你才输了。 189. It requires hard work to give off an appearance of effortlessness. 你必须十分努力，才能看起来毫不费力。 190. Life is like riding a bicycle.To keep your balance,you must keep moving. 人生就像骑单车，只有不断前进，才能保持平衡。(爱因斯坦) 191. Be thankful for what you have.You'll end up having more. 拥有一颗感恩的心，最终你会得到更多。 192. Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. 美是一种内心的感觉，并反映在你的眼睛里。(索菲亚·罗兰) 193. Friendship doubles your joys, and divides your sorrows. 朋友的作用，就是让你快乐加倍，痛苦减半。 194. When you long for something sincerely, the whole world will help you. 当你真心渴望某样东西时，整个宇宙都会来帮忙。 When Paul Jobs was mustered out of the Coast Guard after World War II, he made a wager with his crewmates. They had arrived in San Francisco, where their ship was decommissioned, and Paul bet that he would find himself a wife within two weeks. He was a taut, tattooed engine mechanic, six feet tall, with a passing resemblance to James Dean. But it wasn’t his looks that got him a date with Clara Hagopian, a sweet-humored daughter of Armenian immigrants. It was the fact that he and his friends had a car, unlike the group she had originally planned to go out with that evening. Ten days later, in March 1946, Paul got engaged to Clara and won his wager. It would turn out to be a happy marriage, one that lasted until death parted them more than forty years later. Paul Reinhold Jobs had been raised on a dairy farm in Germantown, Wisconsin. Even though his father was an alcoholic and sometimes abusive, Paul ended up with a gentle and calm disposition under his leathery exterior. After dropping out of high school, he wandered through the Midwest picking up work as a mechanic until, at age nineteen, he joined the Coast Guard, even though he didn’t know how to swim. He was deployed on the USS General M. C. Meigs and spent much of the war ferrying troops to Italy for General Patton. His talent as a machinist and fireman earned him commendations, but he occasionally found himself in minor trouble and never rose above the rank of seaman. Clara was born in New Jersey, where her parents had landed after fleeing the Turks in Armenia, and they moved to the Mission District of San Francisco when she was a child. She had a secret that she rarely mentioned to anyone: She had been married before, but her husband had been killed in the war. So when she met Paul Jobs on that first date, she was primed to start a new life. Like many who lived through the war, they had experienced enough excitement that, when it was over, they desired simply to settle down, raise a family, and lead a less eventful life. They had little money, so they moved to Wisconsin and lived with Paul’s parents for a few years, then headed for Indiana, where he got a job as a machinist for International Harvester. His passion was tinkering with old cars, and he made money in his spare time buying, restoring, and selling them. Eventually he quit his day job to become a full-time used car salesman. Clara, however, loved San Francisco, and in 1952 she convinced her husband to move back there. They got an apartment in the Sunset District facing the Pacific, just south of Golden Gate Park, and he took a job working for a finance company as a “repo man,” picking the locks of cars whose owners hadn’t paid their loans and repossessing them. He also bought, repaired, and sold some of the cars, making a decent enough living in the process. There was, however, something missing in their lives. They wanted children, but Clara had suffered an ectopic pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg was implanted in a fallopian tube rather than the uterus, and she had been unable to have any. So by 1955, after nine years of marriage, they were looking to adopt a child. Like Paul Jobs, Joanne Schieble was from a rural Wisconsin family of German heritage. Her father, Arthur Schieble, had immigrated to the outskirts of Green Bay, where he and his wife owned a mink farm and dabbled successfully in various other businesses, including real estate and photoengraving. He was very strict, especially regarding his daughter’s relationships, and he had strongly disapproved of her first love, an artist who was not a Catholic. Thus it was no surprise that he threatened to cut Joanne off completely when, as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, she fell in love with Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, a Muslim teaching assistant from Syria. Jandali was the youngest of nine children in a prominent Syrian family. His father owned oil refineries and multiple other businesses, with large holdings in Damascus and Homs, and at one point pretty much controlled the price of wheat in the region. His mother, he later said, was a “traditional Muslim woman” who was a “conservative, obedient housewife.” Like the Schieble family, the Jandalis put a premium on education. Abdulfattah was sent to a Jesuit boarding school, even though he was Muslim, and he got an undergraduate degree at the American University in Beirut before entering the University of Wisconsin to pursue a doctoral degree in political science. In the summer of 1954, Joanne went with Abdulfattah to Syria. They spent two months in Homs, where she learned from his family to cook Syrian dishes. When they returned to Wisconsin she discovered that she was pregnant. They were both twenty-three, but they decided not to get married. Her father was dying at the time, and he had threatened to disown her if she wed Abdulfattah. Nor was abortion an easy option in a small Catholic community. So in early 1955, Joanne traveled to San Francisco, where she was taken into the care of a kindly doctor who sheltered unwed mothers, delivered their babies, and quietly arranged closed adoptions. Joanne had one requirement: Her child must be adopted by college graduates. So the doctor arranged for the baby to be placed with a lawyer and his wife. But when a boy was born—on February 24, 1955—the designated couple decided that they wanted a girl and backed out. Thus it was that the boy became the son not of a lawyer but of a high school dropout with a passion for mechanics and his salt-of-the-earth wife who was working as a bookkeeper. Paul and Clara named their new baby Steven Paul Jobs. When Joanne found out that her baby had been placed with a couple who had not even graduated from high school, she refused to sign the adoption papers. The standoff lasted weeks, even after the baby had settled into the Jobs household. Eventually Joanne relented, with the stipulation that the couple promise—indeed sign a pledge—to fund a savings account to pay for the boy’s college education. There was another reason that Joanne was balky about signing the adoption papers. Her father was about to die, and she planned to marry Jandali soon after. She held out hope, she would later tell family members, sometimes tearing up at the memory, that once they were married, she could get their baby boy back. Arthur Schieble died in August 1955, after the adoption was finalized. Just after Christmas that year, Joanne and Abdulfattah were married in St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church in Green Bay. He got his PhD in international politics the next year, and then they had another child, a girl named Mona. After she and Jandali divorced in 1962, Joanne embarked on a dreamy and peripatetic life that her daughter, who grew up to become the acclaimed novelist Mona Simpson, would capture in her book Anywhere but Here. Because Steve’s adoption had been closed, it would be twenty years before they would all find each other. Steve Jobs knew from an early age that he was adopted. “My parents were very open with me about that,” he recalled. He had a vivid memory of sitting on the lawn of his house, when he was six or seven years old, telling the girl who lived across the street. “So does that mean your real parents didn’t want you?” the girl asked. “Lightning bolts went off in my head,” according to Jobs. “I remember running into the house, crying. And my parents said, ‘No, you have to understand.’ They were very serious and looked me straight in the eye. They said, ‘We specifically picked you out.’ Both of my parents said that and repeated it slowly for me. And they put an emphasis on every word in that sentence.” Abandoned. Chosen. Special. Those concepts became part of who Jobs was and how he regarded himself. His closest friends think that the knowledge that he was given up at birth left some scars. “I think his desire for complete control of whatever he makes derives directly from his personality and the fact that he was abandoned at birth,” said one longtime colleague, Del Yocam. “He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.” Greg Calhoun, who became close to Jobs right after college, saw another effect. “Steve talked to me a lot about being abandoned and the pain that caused,” he said. “It made him independent. He followed the beat of a different drummer, and that came from being in a different world than he was born into.” Later in life, when he was the same age his biological father had been when he abandoned him, Jobs would father and abandon a child of his own. (He eventually took responsibility for her.) Chrisann Brennan, the mother of that child, said that being put up for adoption left Jobs “full of broken glass,” and it helps to explain some of his behavior. “He who is abandoned is an abandoner,” she said. Andy Hertzfeld, who worked with Jobs at Apple in the early 1980s, is among the few who remained close to both Brennan and Jobs. “The key question about Steve is why he can’t control himself at times from being so reflexively cruel and harmful to some people,” he said. “That goes back to being abandoned at birth. The real underlying problem was the theme of abandonment in Steve’s life.” Jobs dismissed this. “There’s some notion that because I was abandoned, I worked very hard so I could do well and make my parents wish they had me back, or some such nonsense, but that’s ridiculous,” he insisted. “Knowing I was adopted may have made me feel more independent, but I have never felt abandoned. I’ve always felt special. My parents made me feel special.” He would later bristle whenever anyone referred to Paul and Clara Jobs as his “adoptive” parents or implied that they were not his “real” parents. “They were my parents 1,000%,” he said. When speaking about his biological parents, on the other hand, he was curt: “They were my sperm and egg bank. That’s not harsh, it’s just the way it was, a sperm bank thing, nothing more.” Silicon Valley The childhood that Paul and Clara Jobs created for their new son was, in many ways, a stereotype of the late 1950s. When Steve was two they adopted a girl they named Patty, and three years later they moved to a tract house in the suburbs. The finance company where Paul worked as a repo man, CIT, had transferred him down to its Palo Alto office, but he could not afford to live there, so they landed in a subdivision in Mountain View, a less expensive town just to the south. There Paul tried to pass along his love of mechanics and cars. “Steve, this is your workbench now,” he said as he marked off a section of the table in their garage. Jobs remembered being impressed by his father’s focus on craftsmanship. “I thought my dad’s sense of design was pretty good,” he said, “because he knew how to build anything. If we needed a cabinet, he would build it. When he built our fence, he gave me a hammer so I could work with him.” Fifty years later the fence still surrounds the back and side yards of the house in Mountain View. As Jobs showed it off to me, he caressed the stockade panels and recalled a lesson that his father implanted deeply in him. It was important, his father said, to craft the backs of cabinets and fences properly, even though they were hidden. “He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.” His father continued to refurbish and resell used cars, and he festooned the garage with pictures of his favorites. He would point out the detailing of the design to his son: the lines, the vents, the chrome, the trim of the seats. After work each day, he would change into his dungarees and retreat to the garage, often with Steve tagging along. “I figured I could get him nailed down with a little mechanical ability, but he really wasn’t interested in getting his hands dirty,” Paul later recalled. “He never really cared too much about mechanical things.” “I wasn’t that into fixing cars,” Jobs admitted. “But I was eager to hang out with my dad.” Even as he was growing more aware that he had been adopted, he was becoming more attached to his father. One day when he was about eight, he discovered a photograph of his father from his time in the Coast Guard. “He’s in the engine room, and he’s got his shirt off and looks like James Dean. It was one of those Oh wow moments for a kid. Wow, oooh, my parents were actually once very young and really good-looking.” Through cars, his father gave Steve his first exposure to electronics. “My dad did not have a deep understanding of electronics, but he’d encountered it a lot in automobiles and other things he would fix. He showed me the rudiments of electronics, and I got very interested in that.” Even more interesting were the trips to scavenge for parts. “Every weekend, there’d be a junkyard trip. We’d be looking for a generator, a carburetor, all sorts of components.” He remembered watching his father negotiate at the counter. “He was a good bargainer, because he knew better than the guys at the counter what the parts should cost.” This helped fulfill the pledge his parents made when he was adopted. “My college fund came from my dad paying $50 for a Ford Falcon or some other beat-up car that didn’t run, working on it for a few weeks, and selling it for $250—and not telling the IRS.” The Jobses’ house and the others in their neighborhood were built by the real estate developer Joseph Eichler, whose company spawned more than eleven thousand homes in various California subdivisions between 1950 and 1974. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of simple modern homes for the American “everyman,” Eichler built inexpensive houses that featured floor-to-ceiling glass walls, open floor plans, exposed post-and-beam construction, concrete slab floors, and lots of sliding glass doors. “Eichler did a great thing,” Jobs said on one of our walks around the neighborhood. “His houses were smart and cheap and good. They brought clean design and simple taste to lower-income people. They had awesome little features, like radiant heating in the floors. You put carpet on them, and we had nice toasty floors when we were kids.” Jobs said that his appreciation for Eichler homes instilled in him a passion for making nicely designed products for the mass market. “I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much,” he said as he pointed out the clean elegance of the houses. “It was the original vision for Apple. That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac. That’s what we did with the iPod.” Across the street from the Jobs family lived a man who had become successful as a real estate agent. “He wasn’t that bright,” Jobs recalled, “but he seemed to be making a fortune. So my dad thought, ‘I can do that.’ He worked so hard, I remember. He took these night classes, passed the license test, and got into real estate. Then the bottom fell out of the market.” As a result, the family found itself financially strapped for a year or so while Steve was in elementary school. His mother took a job as a bookkeeper for Varian Associates, a company that made scientific instruments, and they took out a second mortgage. One day his fourth-grade teacher asked him, “What is it you don’t understand about the universe?” Jobs replied, “I don’t understand why all of a sudden my dad is so broke.” He was proud that his father never adopted a servile attitude or slick style that may have made him a better salesman. “You had to suck up to people to sell real estate, and he wasn’t good at that and it wasn’t in his nature. I admired him for that.” Paul Jobs went back to being a mechanic. His father was calm and gentle, traits that his son later praised more than emulated. He was also resolute. Jobs described one example: Nearby was an engineer who was working at Westinghouse. He was a single guy, beatnik type. He had a girlfriend. She would babysit me sometimes. Both my parents worked, so I would come here right after school for a couple of hours. He would get drunk and hit her a couple of times. She came over one night, scared out of her wits, and he came over drunk, and my dad stood him down—saying “She’s here, but you’re not coming in.” He stood right there. We like to think everything was idyllic in the 1950s, but this guy was one of those engineers who had messed-up lives. What made the neighborhood different from the thousands of other spindly-tree subdivisions across America was that even the ne’er-do-wells tended to be engineers. “When we moved here, there were apricot and plum orchards on all of these corners,” Jobs recalled. “But it was beginning to boom because of military investment.” He soaked up the history of the valley and developed a yearning to play his own role. Edwin Land of Polaroid later told him about being asked by Eisenhower to help build the U-2 spy plane cameras to see how real the Soviet threat was. The film was dropped in canisters and returned to the NASA Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, not far from where Jobs lived. “The first computer terminal I ever saw was when my dad brought me to the Ames Center,” he said. “I fell totally in love with it.” Other defense contractors sprouted nearby during the 1950s. The Lockheed Missiles and Space Division, which built submarine-launched ballistic missiles, was founded in 1956 next to the NASA Center; by the time Jobs moved to the area four years later, it employed twenty thousand people. A few hundred yards away, Westinghouse built facilities that produced tubes and electrical transformers for the missile systems. “You had all these military companies on the cutting edge,” he recalled. “It was mysterious and high-tech and made living here very exciting.” In the wake of the defense industries there arose a booming economy based on technology. Its roots stretched back to 1938, when David Packard and his new wife moved into a house in Palo Alto that had a shed where his friend Bill Hewlett was soon ensconced. The house had a garage—an appendage that would prove both useful and iconic in the valley—in which they tinkered around until they had their first product, an audio oscillator. By the 1950s, Hewlett-Packard was a fast-growing company making technical instruments. Fortunately there was a place nearby for entrepreneurs who had outgrown their garages. In a move that would help transform the area into the cradle of the tech revolution, Stanford University’s dean of engineering, Frederick Terman, created a seven-hundred-acre industrial park on university land for private companies that could commercialize the ideas of his students. Its first tenant was Varian Associates, where Clara Jobs worked. “Terman came up with this great idea that did more than anything to cause the tech industry to grow up here,” Jobs said. By the time Jobs was ten, HP had nine thousand employees and was the blue-chip company where every engineer seeking financial stability wanted to work. The most important technology for the region’s growth was, of course, the semiconductor. William Shockley, who had been one of the inventors of the transistor at Bell Labs in New Jersey, moved out to Mountain View and, in 1956, started a company to build transistors using silicon rather than the more expensive germanium that was then commonly used. But Shockley became increasingly erratic and abandoned his silicon transistor project, which led eight of his engineers—most notably Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore—to break away to form Fairchild Semiconductor. That company grew to twelve thousand employees, but it fragmented in 1968, when Noyce lost a power struggle to become CEO. He took Gordon Moore and founded a company that they called Integrated Electronics Corporation, which they soon smartly abbreviated to Intel. Their third employee was Andrew Grove, who later would grow the company by shifting its focus from memory chips to microprocessors. Within a few years there would be more than fifty companies in the area making semiconductors. The exponential growth of this industry was correlated with the phenomenon famously discovered by Moore, who in 1965 drew a graph of the speed of integrated circuits, based on the number of transistors that could be placed on a chip, and showed that it doubled about every two years, a trajectory that could be expected to continue. This was reaffirmed in 1971, when Intel was able to etch a complete central processing unit onto one chip, the Intel 4004, which was dubbed a “microprocessor.” Moore’s Law has held generally true to this day, and its reliable projection of performance to price allowed two generations of young entrepreneurs, including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, to create cost projections for their forward-leaning products. The chip industry gave the region a new name when Don Hoefler, a columnist for the weekly trade paper Electronic News, began a series in January 1971 entitled “Silicon Valley USA.” The forty-mile Santa Clara Valley, which stretches from South San Francisco through Palo Alto to San Jose, has as its commercial backbone El Camino Real, the royal road that once connected California’s twenty-one mission churches and is now a bustling avenue that connects companies and startups accounting for a third of the venture capital investment in the United States each year. “Growing up, I got inspired by the history of the place,” Jobs said. “That made me want to be a part of it.” Like most kids, he became infused with the passions of the grown-ups around him. “Most of the dads in the neighborhood did really neat stuff, like photovoltaics and batteries and radar,” Jobs recalled. “I grew up in awe of that stuff and asking people about it.” The most important of these neighbors, Larry Lang, lived seven doors away. “He was my model of what an HP engineer was supposed to be: a big ham radio operator, hard-core electronics guy,” Jobs recalled. “He would bring me stuff to play with.” As we walked up to Lang’s old house, Jobs pointed to the driveway. “He took a carbon microphone and a battery and a speaker, and he put it on this driveway. He had me talk into the carbon mike and it amplified out of the speaker.” Jobs had been taught by his father that microphones always required an electronic amplifier. “So I raced home, and I told my dad that he was wrong.” “No, it needs an amplifier,” his father assured him. When Steve protested otherwise, his father said he was crazy. “It can’t work without an amplifier. There’s some trick.” “I kept saying no to my dad, telling him he had to see it, and finally he actually walked down with me and saw it. And he said, ‘Well I’ll be a bat out of hell.’” Jobs recalled the incident vividly because it was his first realization that his father did not know everything. Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents. He had always admired his father’s competence and savvy. “He was not an educated man, but I had always thought he was pretty damn smart. He didn’t read much, but he could do a lot. Almost everything mechanical, he could figure it out.” Yet the carbon microphone incident, Jobs said, began a jarring process of realizing that he was in fact more clever and quick than his parents. “It was a very big moment that’s burned into my mind. When I realized that I was smarter than my parents, I felt tremendous shame for having thought that. I will never forget that moment.” This discovery, he later told friends, along with the fact that he was adopted, made him feel apart—detached and separate—from both his family and the world. Another layer of awareness occurred soon after. Not only did he discover that he was brighter than his parents, but he discovered that they knew this. Paul and Clara Jobs were loving parents, and they were willing to adapt their lives to suit a son who was very smart—and also willful. They would go to great lengths to accommodate him. And soon Steve discovered this fact as well. “Both my parents got me. They felt a lot of responsibility once they sensed that I was special. They found ways to keep feeding me stuff and putting me in better schools. They were willing to defer to my needs.” So he grew up not only with a sense of having once been abandoned, but also with a sense that he was special. In his own mind, that was more important in the formation of his personality. School Even before Jobs started elementary school, his mother had taught him how to read. This, however, led to some problems once he got to school. “I was kind of bored for the first few years

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       导读：一个西方人写的中越战争，值得细细品味。

　　现在国内有关中越战争的资料非常稀缺，我们费了很大力气得到的信息现在看来许多都难辨真伪，所以我们认为对中越战争的研究应慎之又慎。

　　我的外国友人在今年夏末已经写就了第二篇分析报告，后根据网友提供的资料对许多细节作了相应的修改，但仍然被他们的上司以文章过于亲华、过于赞誉邓小平为由而加以否定。

　　而我看这篇文章还是有一定的学术价值的，如果就此废弃扔掉实在可惜。于是我按着自己的理解将该文翻译成汉文，标题没有更改，这就是下面即将奉献给大家的《中越战争——冷战的转折点》一文。（此文面世时间约为2015年）

　　谨以此文献给文章的原作者——我的加拿大及芬兰朋友，尽管他们不让透露真实姓名，但对他们长期关注中国等东方国家命运的研究深表感谢！同时，也以此文献给国内外关心中越战争研究的各位网友，对他们给撰写此文提供的帮助深表感谢！

　　最后，向中越双方在战争中死难的10多万军人和平民表示深深的哀悼！向亲历这场战争的中越双方数百万军人和平民表示深深的慰问！

中越战争——冷战的转折点

　　冷战的转折点其实就是1979年的中越战争，这场规模有限，时间短促，方式落后的战争当时虽然引起整个世界的震动，但不久就被人遗忘，没人会想到从这一年开始，仅12年整个苏联东欧集团就彻底崩溃。而在此之前的34年里，以美国为首的西方国家想尽各种办法削弱苏联，都收效甚微，苏联在1979年反而达到了其扩张的巅峰。

（一）中国在冷战中的特殊作用

　　苏联在这么短的时间戏剧性地崩溃，出乎所有人的预料，尽管苏联崩溃22年来各种各样的评论层出不穷，已经发表的著作和政论文章可谓汗牛充栋，但其中的一个关键的因素却论述不多，那就是中国在以苏联为首的东方集团与以美国为首的西方集团之间发生了战略角色的转换：中国从苏联名义上的盟国变成了美国事实上的盟友，而完成这一转换的标致就是1979年的中越战争。

　　1945年以后的世界是美国和苏联分而治之的世界，但不论对美国还是苏联，中国的态度无疑都非常重要，中国在这个世界上的地位和份量不是美国和苏联以外的任何一个国家能够替代的，不论中国加入苏联和美国的哪一方，另一方都会受不了。从1945年往后的40年里，以苏联为首的东方和以美国为首的西方都有一些卫星国或小伙伴背叛，苏联方面是阿尔巴尼亚、南斯拉夫、匈牙利、波兰、捷克斯洛伐克、罗马尼亚、埃及等，美国方面有古巴、法国、委内瑞拉、伊朗、尼加拉瓜等，这些卫星国或小伙伴要么加入了对方的集团，要么游离于东西方之间，要么重新又回到了主子的怀抱，但不管他们采取什么措施，都没有撼动苏联或美国的世界地位，也没有影响冷战的整个格局，这些国家的离开或加入对美苏双方来说都可以忽略不计。但是中国就不同了，中国在冷战的前期加入了苏联为首的东方，美国跟着就开始倒霉，险一崩溃；中国在冷战的后期脱离苏联又加入了美国为首的西方，苏联跟着也开始倒霉，最终走向了崩溃。

　　跌了跟斗的美国并没有认真吸取教训，而是急于在别的地方重新找回面子。那时的美国还没有完全认识到自己力量的有限，所以12年后，即1965年，美国在越南又介入了一场跟中苏的对抗。尽管中苏当时已经公开决裂，但在越南共同对付美国这一大事上，却是一心的。1965年时的苏联和中国当然跟1950年时不可同日而语，所以美国在越南遭到了比在朝鲜更大的失败，不仅美国军队被迫全部撤走，而且亲美的南越也被亲华亲苏的北越整个吞并。

　　朝鲜战争和越南战争是美国建国以来遭受的两场最大的挫折，前者被世界公认为美国的失败，后者更是美国自己都承认的失败。1973年美国从越南撤军时，美国的民心、士气都跌到了历史的最低谷，整个国家也处于分裂的边缘。切肤之痛让美国深切认识到不能再在以一敌二的劣势环境中继续硬挺，不然强大的美国一定会走向崩溃。中国是个不能小看的独立对手，既然美国不能同时打倒两个巨人，那就得想办法把他们拆散，各个击破。由于当时美国的主要威胁还是苏联，中国又跟苏联接壤，联苏击华只能让苏联人得实惠，所以美国人经过考虑自然就选择了联华击苏。高傲的美国人于是放下架子开始向中国示好，而在此之前中苏之间的分裂、论战以及边境武装冲突也为美国战略目标的转移创造了契机，1972年2月，尼克松访华，中美这对不共戴天的敌人开始化敌为友。

　　就在美国人向自己的既定目标一步步迈进时，苏联却仍然执迷不悟。斯大林在1945年的雅尔塔会议上跟罗斯福一样没把中国当回事儿，5年后他也不知道自己与毛泽东签定了一项什么样的条约，那是苏联走向世界帝国的根基，苏联在冷战期间所取得的种种优势都跟中苏同盟有关，所以苏联的世界战略应该是千方百计地拉住中国这个最有份量的盟友，其它的事情都应给巩固中苏同盟让位。但是斯大林却把中国当成了一个不听话的讨厌跟班，连美国对英国那样的尊重都没有。斯大林之后的赫鲁晓夫和勃列日涅夫也没能跳出这种惯性思维的桎梏，仍然象对待南斯拉夫那样对待中国，疏不知中国可不是南斯拉夫那样的小国。斯大林、赫鲁晓夫、勃列日涅夫对中国的态度很可能是俄国人历史上对中国满清政府和国民党政府极端蔑视的一种自然延续，这种态度美国同期的罗斯福、杜鲁门、艾森豪威尔、肯尼迪、约翰逊多多少少也有，但是朝鲜战争后美国人的态度已经开始转变，到了越南战争后期则彻底改变，重视和尊重起中国来，而这时的苏联人还是老样子，1975年苏联人对中国的态度跟1945年时没有什么本质上的差别，而且直到1985年戈尔巴乔夫上台以前，苏联人还是不习惯美国以外的国家跟自己平起平坐。从美苏对中国不同的认识和态度上，可以看出苏联人思想的顽固、思维的滞后和眼光的狭隘，以这样的思想、思维和眼光当然不能引领世界，这也是苏联最终失去中国这个最重要的盟友，在冷战中失败的主要原因。

　　不过从20世纪70年代前半期的形势讲，苏联还有机会不陷入与中美对抗的泥潭，因为当时中苏同盟条约的期限还没有到期，尼克松访华也没有形成事实上的中美联盟，双方还处于初步的试探中，而且两国内部都有强烈反对中美接近的声音。不久尼克松因此深陷“水门”，而中国的“四人帮”也兴风作浪，如果苏联人这时抓紧时间改变策略，完全可以避免以一敌二的战略窘境。但就在这千钧一发的关键时刻，越南人的弄巧成拙却让苏联最后一丝希望化为泡影，而美国则晕头转向地接受了梦想成真的现实。

（二）越南的悲愤和梦想

　　越南紧邻中国，是中南半岛的大国，但是在亚洲只能算中小国家，放到全世界这个范围更是地地道道的小国。小国的战略视野一般比较狭窄，对世界大局作用有限，但在特殊情况下也会产生问鼎世界政治的幻想。中国周边的小国多多少少都有取代中国的梦想，一有机会就死抓住不放，而且不惜一切代价，敢冒任何风险。日本在19世纪70~90年代就曾经成功尝试了一次，收获颇为丰厚，不然这个遍布火山、经常地震的贫瘠岛国现在谁知道它在哪儿？尽管日本人最后尝到了原子弹爆炸的恐怖，但这并不能完全浇灭中国周边小国的那个梦想。在日本人初次开始行动整整100年后，国土轮廓也呈长条S形，跟日本的轮廓极其相似的越南又开始了大胆的第二次尝试。

　　对越南来说，在1975年时她似乎有这个本钱。毕竟她是人类历史上连续打败两个强大的白人国家（法国和美国）的唯一有色人种国家，其中美国还是世界头号强国，这一点日本人和中国人都没做到。越南的战争努力没有象日本那样落了个亡国投降的下场，就是跟中国相比成就也远远超出：美军在越南的伤亡人数是在朝鲜的2倍半还多（36万/14万），况且朝鲜美军的伤亡有相当一部分还是朝鲜人民军造成的。越南人在其最自豪的奠边府战役中全歼了1.6万名白人正规军，而中国人则没有在一个地方围歼5000人以上白人军队的战例，其最自豪的上甘岭战役也不过是将白人击败赶走。所以，越南人信心十足地认为自己比中国人更胜一筹，她才是黄种人最优秀的代表。而当时的中国经过10年的内乱虚弱不堪，经济凋弊，政局不稳，作为国家支柱的人民解放军，更是深受政治挂帅的毒害，装备、训练废弛，军官只会喊政治口号，士兵拿锄头比拿枪还熟练。越南的一些将军利用当时的同盟关系到中国军营实地观察，回来后认为久经战阵的越南士兵1个能顶中国30个。种种迹象表明当时的中国正处于共产党执政以来最容易被打倒的时期，取代中国别的国家不敢想，越南则认为时机千载难逢。尽管中国曾经在抗法与抗美战争中给予越南大量无私的援助，但取代中国这个前景实在诱人，最终还是战胜了越南人的感恩心理。

　　越南的行径在外人看来很有些背叛和忘恩负义的味道，但是站在越南的角度，却另有一番悲愤的合理性。越南人在长期的战争中损失实在太大，从1945年~1975年的30年时间里，超过500万的越南人死于战火，这么惨重的代价让越南人觉得应该得到补偿。但是1972年2月的尼克松访华却让越南人觉得自己成吨的鲜血都被中国人拿来跟美国作了交易。同年12月，尼克松的B-52几乎将越南首都河内从地球上抹去，但是中国的表现却并不给力，越南人被迫在来年的1月跟美国签订了巴黎协定，以承认越南南北继续分裂来换取美国全部撤军。巴黎协定让越南人觉得自己第二次被出卖了，他们没有忘记，1954年奠边府大捷以后，也是由于中国人不支持越南乘胜追击，越南才被迫接受了南北分裂的政治格局。1954年时的越南对中国还敢怒不敢言，但1973年他们已经有能力反抗了。同年3月29日，美军全部撤走，越南统一的最大障碍被搬除，出于以往的教训和当时中国万分虚弱的现实，越南当然要尝试一下在亚洲取代中国的战略。

（三）周恩来的警觉和邓小平的对策

　　越南取代中国的尝试准确地说是从1974年开始的，当年中越边界有了一些小的摩擦和纠纷，越南此举是在试探中国的反应。不幸的是越南的举动立即引起了中国的警觉，中国跟苏联不同，已经拥有了一批世界大脑级的战略家，尽管有第一夫人江青的骚扰，老辣的周恩来还是很快就嗅出了越南想反叛的气息。周恩来拥有遍及世界的情报网，而且运转效率非常高，源源不断给他提供各种准确的信息。周恩来根据他掌握的至今都没有公开的一批高级间谍的情报，十分敏锐地觉察到越南人在走100年前日本人的老路：整整100年前的1874年，日本人冒险在台湾制造纠纷，试出了当时中国满清政府虚弱和无能的本质，日本据此判断自己的扩张挑衅不会招致中国大规模入侵的报复。第二年，即1875年，日本便出兵朝鲜，将自己的影响大胆地锲入中国传统的势力范围——朝鲜半岛。10年后，即1884年，日本借中法战争进一步巩固和扩大自己在朝鲜的地位。又过了10年，即1894年，日本更是以朝鲜为基地向中国全面开战，最终打败中国取代了中国在亚洲的地位。周恩来跟越南人打了几十年的交道，深知越南取代中国的野心被压抑了千年之久，一但释放会象日本那样爆发出惊人的力量。周恩来不会忘记，1874年日本人开始向中国挑衅时，不光李鸿章，连日本的许多高官都认为是在找死，但是不受抑制的日本人为实现梦想爆发的能量实在惊人，20年后日本不仅没有死，反而差点把中国弄死。历史的教训让周恩来不敢象李鸿章那样对越南不屑一顾，必须赶快采取措施浇灭越南人头脑中不切实际的邪火，如果无动于衷，以后的代价中国恐怕承受不起。

　　1975年3月，越南违背巴黎协定发动了统一南北的战争，这也是越南违背中国的意愿第一次单独进行的战略性行动，具有极大的冒险性。可没想到南越阮文绍政权的100多万军队一仗未打就全面崩溃，原计划几年的战事，仅55天就大功告成，这么快的速度使深陷“水门”的美国和深陷“文革”的中国都无力干涉。超乎寻常的冒险成功进一步印证了越南摆脱中国，走自己道路的正确性。21年前奠边府大捷后，黎笋就制定过长驱直入西贡，一举统一南北的计划。由于中国的阻挠，黎笋的计划直到1975年才实施，它的成功一下子摧毁了中国人25年来在越南所做的一切。中国人1954年说的越南统一条件不成熟的话顿时成了谎言，中国在越南的声誉一落千丈。看着北越坦克冲入南越总统府的新闻纪录片，周恩来知道，越南已从听话的孩童变成了危险的少年，不采取非常措施已经制止不了这个少年的叛逆心理了。

　　复出后的邓小平对付越南的最初策略便是扶植红色高棉，本来周恩来在世时并不想让红色高棉在柬埔寨掌权，因为红色高棉的行为十分极端，周恩来不想让它替代朗诺。但由于美国的软弱，红色高棉攻下金边比越南人攻下西贡还要快。朗诺跟阮文绍两个亲美政权闪电般的垮台比1991年前后亲苏的东欧政权快得多，这种相似的情景不能不让人浮想联翩，如果当时没有中国这样的角色，美国用什么办法制止自己阵营里即将发生的类似东欧巨变那样的多米诺骨牌式的倒塌？柬埔寨、南越以后亲美的泰国、马来西亚、新加坡能独善其身吗？本身就四分五裂的缅甸能安然无恙吗？结论谁都不敢打保票的。

　　红色高棉执政后的种族灭绝政策确实臭名昭着，但是作为一个大战略家，邓小平不能只看眼前的残忍而不顾眼后的恐怖。红色高棉毕竟已经掌权，它跟中国之间隔着越南，干掉它对中国来说不仅十分困难，就是干掉了也只能便宜越南。更重要的是红色高棉夺取政权让波尔布特发了疯，而越南统一也让黎笋发了疯，对邓小平来说，波尔布特疯了还不可怕，黎笋疯了才可怕，用疯了的波尔布特牵制疯了的黎笋，在当时条件下对中国来说是能够选择的上上策。

　　国际纷争其实就是这么简单而又残酷，小国只要有一点非分的企图，不是被大国抑制就是被大国利用。1977年中国对越南的援助已大为减少，相反，对红色高棉的援助不减反增，越南人突然发现没有了中国的援助自己对付不了红色高棉。他们忘了自己对法、对美的战争机器基本上都是由中国人提供和开动的，苏联人只是到了对美战争的后期才开始发挥作用，但在1978年以前还没能替代中国在越南的位置。与朝鲜战争中中国军队的独立性完全不同，越南士兵从上到下所有的穿戴和装备，整个军队的运转，包括粮食弹药油料的供应，后勤组织，战场通讯，医疗救护，战略战术的规划，甚至连大的战役指挥都得仰仗中国人，越南人只是不停地用鲜血给这部机器润滑罢了。这个里里外外、从硬件到软件都靠别人组装起来的战争机器当然不可能围着越南的意志转，中国人想让它转它就能转，想让它停它就得停，这是周恩来以前控制越南屡试不爽的紧箍咒，也是黎笋一直忌恨中国人的根本原因。这样的机器越南用来对付法国人、美国人当然高效运转，一但用来对付红色高棉，立即就被掐了电源。（四）稚嫩的越南的幼稚

　　被中国断了奶的黎笋开始了极其荒唐的行为，他仍以打败美国的最大英雄自居，到死都没认识到越南战争其实就是越南人用身躯替中苏跟美国人较量。1977年11月，高傲而又幼稚的黎笋跑到北京，以恢复中越关系为交换条件，要求中国继续提供大量的军事援助。邓小平可不稀罕什么恢复关系的空话，他发现黎笋要的军援对付红色高棉绰绰有余，真给了恐怕倒霉的不仅红色高棉，连泰国、缅甸、马来西亚、新加坡甚至中国自己都得遭殃。邓小平进一步肯定了周恩来两年前的判断，拒绝了黎笋的全部要求，黎笋访华遇到了国际关系史上少有的冷遇。现在的史学家仍然不明白1977年黎笋为什么访华，既不是去求中国，也不是去试探中国，而是去把自己的底牌全抖落给了中国，除了加快越南的灾难外什么都没得到。选择这么一个幼稚、狂妄、顽固、不知深浅的人当国家领头人，实在是越南这个国家的悲哀！更可悲的是黎笋竟然认为邓小平是中国领导人里唯一对越南友好的人，根本没看出邓小平礼貌客套背后的杀机，以这样的见识还在领导越南取代中国，简直是整个越南民族的奇耻大辱！！所以中越战争还没有开打，胜负就已经命中注定！

　　1978年12月25日，借着苏联给的战争机器，越南迫不及待地对红色高棉发动了战略性的毁灭进攻，14天后，越南军队无任何悬念地攻下金边，推翻了早就该倒台的红色高棉。这是越南人摆脱中国后单独进行的第二次重大军事行动，又取得了出乎意料的重大成功。但是越南的辉煌成就里隐藏着致命的设计缺陷，而且这一缺陷还是战略层面上的，不是战役战术层面的，所以越南的重大成功不久就给自己带来了极大的损害。首先，越南出兵柬埔寨的时机非常糟糕。与希特勒闪击波兰时英、法事先毫无准备、事后不想作为不同，中国在越南出兵前1个月已决定对越开战，许多军队已经开到边境集训，不可能对越南的举动做不出反应。这就好比一头狮子（中国）已经扎好架子要扑向一只猎狗（越南），而那只猎狗却莫名其妙地转身扑向一只兔子（柬埔寨），把后背留给了狮子。猎狗在咬住兔子的同时肯定会被狮子从背后撕下一大块肉，而且由于猎狗的注意力全在兔子身子，狮子想怎么咬就怎么咬，想撕多大一块肉就能撕多大一块肉。当然，猎狗以为狮子背后有北极熊（苏联）盯着，狮子不敢对自己造次。但他不知道到北极熊离得太远，还天生迟缓，等北极熊挪过来抬爪攻击时，狮子早撕下一块肉跳到一旁了。

　　其次，越南出兵选择的时间更是糟糕透顶。越南在柬埔寨闹出那么大动静中国不可能没有反应，作为越南应该让这种反应规模尽量小，时间尽量晚。如果越南考虑周密一些，中南半岛的气候条件是能够帮助越南实现这一目标的。因为每年3月底4月初中南半岛就进入雨季，大规模的战争行动到时根本不能进行，所以越南象中国那样选在来年的2月中下旬进攻柬埔寨，中国人在1979年就没有时间进行后来那样的大规模战争。当然，中国人有可能先对越南动手，但只要越南没有在中南半岛大举行动，中国人在边境搞出大动作就毫无必要，最多也是进行一些攻下法卡山、老山那样的小战，不会对越南造成那么大的损失。但是越南人选在1978年12月进攻柬埔寨就完全不同了，中国人一下子有了3个多月的时间调兵布置，能够从容实施一场大规模的战争，原计划1980年以后才打的大仗完全可以提前到1979年，这无疑对越南极为不利。所以越南进攻柬埔寨在战术上虽然极其成功，但在战略上则愚蠢至极，使用了下策中的下策。从越南人火候把握的极不成熟可以看出他们刚开始独立操纵自己命运时表现得多么幼稚，幼稚得将自己30多年来无尽的鲜血好不容易换来的世界性地位转瞬间全部抛弃扔掉！

　　邓小平是绝不会放过这样的好机会的，他从最初的惊愕中一回过味儿来，立即决定扩大对越战争，几乎1秒钟都没耽搁。他下令调9个野战军的部队准备攻击越南，远远超出原计划的2个师，而且运去了大量的作战器材。邓小平明白，对越南这样鬼迷心窍的国家除了放血根本没办法，而且血放少了还不起作用。现在越南人自己在柬埔寨妄开战端给了邓小平机会，这个时候杀向越南比越南全力以赴、严阵以待的情况下杀伤力大不知多少倍！邓小平当然不会心慈手软，仗能打多大就打多大，这种只赚不赔的买卖血流得越多中国得的实惠就越大！

　　邓小平一点也没浪费越南人留给自己的机会和时间。1979年1月1日，中国跟美国正式建立了的外交关系，彻底打破了尼克松访华后中美关系的沉闷局面，这离越南出兵柬埔寨仅仅7天。紧跟着，邓小平马不停蹄地出访美国，这是邓小平一生中最重要的一次出访，也是美国历史上第一次迎接共产党中国来的高官。邓小平把自己出兵越南的意图全盘透露给美国总统卡特，希望美国跟自己一起分割吃肉。但是卡特脑子迟钝，没看出一场饕餮盛宴正等着美国，他以为邓小平疯了，傻兮兮地劝介邓小平别忘了美国在越南的教训。

（五）残忍的教训

　　中越战争的残忍血腥到现在仍让人心惊胆寒，双方在极短的时间内尸积如山、血流成河，当然，这些尸体和鲜血大部分都是越南人的，因为战争的优势始终在中国人一方。中国人用30万人打越南10万人，而且由于越南人战术呆板，死守固定的要点，所以在具体攻击时中国人往往能调来5~7倍的兵力围攻越军。火器弹药中国人更是占有压倒性的优势，由于飞机、导弹、坦克没有在战争中唱主角，大口径火炮成了双方最有效的杀人武器。战争中中国人先后有48个炮兵团进入越南境内，动用的大口径火炮超过2880门，而越南人能与之对抗的仅9个炮兵团，充其量324门大口径火炮。中国人发射的82毫米以上的炮弹达883381枚，日均发射量超过朝鲜战争中的6倍！而越南人回击的同样炮弹可能连1/10都不到。虽然越南人小口径火炮拥有数量上的优势，但由于通讯落后，弹药补给困难，部队过早分散，所以也没有发挥出数量上的优势。铺天盖地的炮火让一线的越南部队守不住任何一个要点，也使二线的越南部队根本不能给一线提供有效的支援，被迫分散的越军到后来也成为分散配置的中国大口径火炮的靶子。中国在炮火方面的优势在很大程度上免除了其步兵的战斗，如果没有炮兵的有力支持，中国比朝鲜战争中素质低得多的步兵几乎可以肯定不是越南步兵的对手。

　　越南的失败在于他们根本没有应付如此大规模进攻的思想准备，他们犯了中东战争中阿拉伯国家一样的错误，过分地相信后台老板苏联人的决心和勇气。越南人始终认为有苏联在北面看着中国，中国不敢对自己大动干戈，最多也是师团一级的中小规模入侵，凭越南军队的战斗力完全可以在一线挡住那样的进攻，只要拖到苏联在北面向中国出兵，越南还可以反过来攻进中国境内。过分的自以为是使越南人根本没有认真考虑中国大规模出兵的可能，也没有仔细揣摩中国领导层的意图，连邓小平在中国政坛的作用和地位都没搞清。当邓小平在美国向越南发出战争警告时，黎笋还以为邓小平是在违心地应和中国其他领导人做表演。越南人在边境布置的10万人也不是用来对付集团军一级规模的进攻的，其落后简陋的通讯系统在战争的头一天就让河内跟前线完全失去了联系，所以越南在前线的部队基本上是在各自为战，后方的增援部队也象没头的苍蝇一样到处乱撞。直到一周后坐飞机风尘仆仆赶来的苏联通讯部队紧急接管跟前线的通讯联络，越南才逐渐恢复了跟前线部队的联系。等他们最终搞清楚攻过来的中国军队的规模时，猛然发现在首都以北驻守的部队数量根本挡不住中国军队，在苏联顾问的建议下，越南急忙把在柬埔寨的一些主力部队如304师等紧急调往北方，但远水已经解不了近渴，越南只好眼睁睁地看着一线部队一个个陷入重围而无法救援。好在越南急忙下令308师、312师等二线部队停止增援，马上回撤，这才避免了越南第一王牌和第二王牌也象316A师那样飞蛾扑火，从而给首都河内留下了宝贵的守卫力量。不然，河内就象个一丝不挂的新娘，任凭已经冲过来的成群的中国恶狼肆意蹂躏。

　　为了给河内的守卫部队争取时间，越南不得不断臂割腕，残忍地下令308师、312师等以外的部队继续填进火海，同时给陷入重围的部队下了死命令，不惜一切代价拖住敌人，哪怕在阵地流尽最后一滴血！命令被不折不扣地坚决执行，但是越南糟糕的后勤供应却让这些部队雪上加霜。由于对战争的规模严重估计不足，越南事先储备的粮食弹药非常有限，等大批中国军队攻过来，拚命抵抗的越南部队两三天就粮弹告磬，但越南少得可怜的后方储存及交通工具根本无法有效补充，前方的越南士兵只好饿着肚子拚命节省弹药。而对面见了血的士兵已经开始用疯狂的射击进行报复，中国的弹药供应无穷无尽，这种情况下越南士兵面临的是一种什么样的悲惨境遇可想而知。现代战争打的是钢铁、后勤还有指挥，不是过去的经验，先天的不足已经让越南在钢铁、后勤方面取胜的机率大大降低，后天思想上准备的不足，情报失误，组织混乱，一线取胜的作战方针，更是让越南在指挥方面取胜的机会大打折扣。各种不幸几乎都砸在了越南头上，高素质的越南士兵基本上发挥不出特长，他们的老练、顽强及有效抵抗，恰好给了对方士兵泄愤的机会，越方军民所遭到的杀伤，基础设施所遭到的破坏，无形中大了许多倍，战争也不可避免地向能多残酷就多残酷，能流多少血就流多少血的野蛮方向发展。当然，这些残酷和鲜血基本上都是越南人在承受。

（六）苏联被拖下水淹没

　　邓小平一直在说对越作战是在教训东方的古巴，这话听着话里有话，恐怕只有苏联和美国才知道邓小平这样讲是什么意思。1962年的古巴导弹危机让美国和苏联跟1979年时的中国和苏联一样，差一点兵戎相见。苏联人在1962年栽了面子，被迫在美国的压迫下让步，赫鲁晓夫因此在国内外声名扫地，不到2年就被勃列日涅夫搞下台。但是赫鲁晓夫还没象勃列日涅夫那样输得那么惨，他还是强迫肯尼迪作出了决不入侵盟友古巴的保证，古巴不仅在美国的眼皮子底下继续作威作福，而且永远免遭越南那样的军事打击。而勃列日涅夫则让自己的盟友越南被打得皮开肉绽，自己却连反击的机会都没有，尽管中国的力量比美国弱得多，但是邓小平短平快的行动比肯尼迪破釜沉舟的恫吓让苏联栽的面子更大，苏联在全世界面前遭到了更严重的羞辱，所以中越战争对苏联的打击程度远远超过古巴导弹危机，它不仅损害了苏联在全世界的声誉，而且加深加快了东方阵营内许多小伙伴的离心步伐。可惜的是世界媒体对中越战争的关注程度远远不如古巴导弹危机。

　　中越战争后苏联阵营里第一个反叛者是埃及。埃及早就对自己的主子心存不满，1973年第四次中东战争后已经对苏联产生了离心倾向，但慑于苏联的强大一直没有采取实质性的行动。1977年11月，埃及总统萨达特主动访问耶路撒冷，与美国在中东的代言人以色列总理贝京进行谈判，但没有取得任何进展。1978年9月，萨达特与贝京在美国签署了戴维营协议，答应与以色列结束战争状态，和平解决争端。但那仅是非正式的一纸意向，并不能象真正的合约那样具有实际效果。由于国内及整个阿拉伯世界的强烈反对，苏联的强大压力，萨达特没敢如约在3个月后签署正式的和约。但中越战争后萨达特的胆子就壮起来，仅过了10天，即1979年3月26日就与以色列签署了正式和约，埃及毅然决然地背叛了整个阿拉伯世界和苏联，与以色列结束了30多年的战争状态，美国立即慷慨地给予大量的经济和军事援助。尽管阿盟绝大多数国家立即与埃及断交，萨达特2年后也被刺杀，但这丝毫不能改变埃及已经加入西方阵营的现实，苏伊士运河这个战略要地牢牢地进入了美国的掌控中。

　　紧跟着埃及反叛的是阿富汗，1979年9月，受中越战争及埃及成功反叛的影响，阿富汗政府内亲美的阿明干掉了亲苏掌权的塔拉基。但是阿富汗的地理位置不如埃及，她紧邻苏联，所以阿明的反叛引得苏联在同年12月27日出动10万大军进行干涉，推翻了阿明政权。苏联的过激行为被外界认为是对越南遭受中国攻击自己支持不力的一种补偿，也是防止阿富汗变成第二个埃及。从阿明闹出动静到苏联出兵，中间间隔了3个月，远远超出邓小平对苏联军队反应速度的估计，但是无论如何，苏联在阿富汗跟在越南一样误判了形势，他们还没有意识到全球力量对比正向不利于自己的一面快速发展。美国人不失时机地迅速采取行动，给阿富汗的反苏游击队提供大量的金钱和武器，这些援助没过多长时间就让苏军在阿富汗陷入泥沼。

　　苏联在越南、阿富汗的接连失误很快引起了全局的被动和战略性危机：在西亚，苏联失去了将更重要的伊朗拉入阵营的绝佳时机。本来在中越战争爆发前6天，紧邻苏联的伊朗爆发了伊斯兰革命，推翻了亲美的巴列维国王，如果苏联人抓紧时间拉拢，霍梅尼很可能倒向苏联。那样的话苏联进入印度洋、波斯湾更容易，比走阿富汗近得多。但由于中越战争及阿富汗战争的掣肘，苏联人始终没有时间对伊朗采取行动，结果美国人抓紧时间武装萨达姆。1980年9月22日，萨达姆在美国的挑唆下向伊朗全面进攻，挑起了旷日持久的两伊战争。奇怪的是苏联对脱离美国的伊朗不仅不支持鼓励，反而在某种程度上向着伊拉克。两伊战争经过几次拉锯后，终于向不利于伊朗的方向发展，孤立无援的伊朗最后被打得遍体鳞伤，不得不求和。美国通过伊拉克教训了背叛的伊朗，同时有效吓阻了阵营内其他还想背叛的小伙伴，而苏联不仅失去了与中东大国伊朗结盟的机会，也失去了借道伊朗南下印度洋、染指波斯湾石油的可能。

　　在苏联心脏的东欧地区，苏联对阿富汗、越南的大量投入以及之前在世界其它地区的无限扩张，不仅让苏联人民苦不堪言，也让经济基础本就薄弱的东欧各国雪上加霜。最不安分的波兰最先起来发难，1980年8月14日，波兰爆发全国性的罢工，抗议物价飞速上涨，格但斯克造船厂的电工瓦文萨组织了东欧历史上第一个反政府的政治团体——团结工会，专门跟苏联作对。勃列日涅夫一连撤换了两任亲苏的执政党总书记，并调50万大军到苏波边境集结。波兰可不象越南那样非要用鸡蛋碰石头，闹腾到1981年12月13日，新上任的雅鲁泽尔斯基拘禁了瓦文萨，宣布全国进入战时状态。这虽然避免了苏联的军事干涉，但是波兰与苏联之间的裂痕已无法弥合，随着时间的推移，不光波兰，整个东欧对苏联的离心倾向都越来越明显。

　　在远东的中越边界，勃列日涅夫并没有象赫鲁晓夫在古巴导弹危机后那样成功，邓小平等看到苏联在阿富汗、中东和东欧都陷入了危机，准备给越南“第二次教训”。越南被迫在北部边境维持了一支近100万人的大军，防止1979年那样的悲剧再次发生。以越南那样的小国保持100多万的正规军后果不堪设想，庞大的后勤工作就让越南几乎没剩什么劳动力，越南少得可怜的那点儿重工业在中越战争中又遭到全面摧残，所以只能全靠苏联维持如此庞大的军队。苏联每天给越南的援助在200~250万美元，这也让苏联不堪重负，而且大批苏联的物资都要经过海路、空路的长途运输，惊人的运输成本和损耗当然也得苏联割肉。再加上越南专业技术人才几乎为零，越南北方本已非常薄弱的基础设施在中越战争中又遭到全面摧毁，所以大量先进的苏联援助在偏远的中越边境根本施展不开。

　　正是看准这一点，邓小平明白在中越边界打仗比在中苏、中蒙边界直接跟苏联人对抗更能有效地打击苏联，而中国一方的战争成本和风险都降到了最低。1980年10月，中国人夺取了有争议的罗家坪大山。1981年5月，在广西和云南方向几乎同时又夺取了法卡山和扣林山。越南的反击都遭到失败，伤亡超过中国的5倍。1984年4~5月，中国人又攻取了老山和者阴山，越南实在无法承受，被迫以全国、全军之力在地形不利的老山跟中国人展开大规模的争夺。越南这样的小国打正规阵地战本来就非常吃亏，再加上中国军队经过彻底改革战斗力已今非昔比，而越南军队则完全丧失1979年本土作战的优势，所以越南人在老山承受了比1979年还要悲惨的战斗。1984年7月12日，越南在老山的大规模反击遭到失败，一天当中扔下3700多具尸体，而对方只死了70多人。1985年5月31日~6月11日，越南人成功地夺回A6b高地（中国人称211高地），并打退中国人的反击，根据自己惊人的弹药和人员消耗量，判断消灭中国军队至少1个师，而实际上中国方面只死了122人。现代战争天文数字般的物资消耗让越南人根本吃不消，所以A6b高地在同年9月8日又被中国人夺回。到1986年7月黎笋死时，老山地区的战线已经推进越南一方好几公里，越南方面完全丧失了排以上规模的反击能力，士气低落，几乎每支部队都出现了逃兵。而邓小平则在筹划空地协同、导弹攻击、机降作战等新的作战模式，准备开辟第二、第三个老山战场。1988年更是在南中国海把冲突从陆地扩大到了海洋，准备派海军攻取越南中部的昏果岛，从海上掐断贯通南北的越南铁路交通大动脉。

　　中越边界战争至此完全成为套在越南人脖子上的枷锁，但是苏联却不能眼睁睁地看着越南垮台，她为越南付出的血本太多，越南的崩溃就意味着苏联在东南亚的既得利益全部丢失。所以苏联只好牙齿打落了往肚里咽，嗬上老本继续援助越南。中越边界战争因此也成为苏联不断淌血的深深伤口，只要她继续支撑越南，血就会没完没了地继续流。

　　在柬埔寨，波尔布特借助中越战争及中国源源不断的援助死灰复燃，在柬埔寨偏远的农村和山区继续跟越南人进行着他创造的那种残酷的作战，稍有不利中国人就会在北方搞出动静。越南在柬埔寨的10万大军始终不能给红色高棉象样的打击，双方很快也陷入谁也吃不了谁的烂仗中，越南死不撤军，波尔布特死不改悔，相互在仇恨中死扛着看谁更能挨揍。越南在柬埔寨的战争消耗也是全靠苏联，虽然柬埔寨的战争规模远远小于中越边界，但它仍然成为苏联躯体上不断淌血的另一道伤口。

　　在地中海东岸，苏联在第四次中东战争后拥有的某种优势在埃及反叛后被从根本上削弱，美国在中东豢养的猎犬以色列趁机冲出栅栏咬人。1982年6月，以色列无所顾忌地发动第五次中东战争，出动10万大军攻进黎巴嫩，黎巴嫩、巴解组织、叙利亚相继战败，苏联在中东好不容易扶植起来的力量遭受了一次全面的摧残。第五次中东战争、两伊战争与阿富汗战争一起，让苏联在整个阿拉伯、伊斯兰世界威信扫地，好不容易建立起来的影响几乎完全丧失，而西亚和中东这一世界的能源中心从此又重新回到美国的掌控中。

　　在非洲，苏联的处境也越来越不妙。本来，苏联人1975年借助越南战争的胜利在非洲大陆进行了成功的渗透，安哥拉、莫桑比克、埃塞俄比亚都建立了比较稳固的亲苏政权。但是中越战争和阿富汗战争以后，原先不想作为的美国在里根上台后信心大增，开始在非洲大陆进行大规模的反击。美国人用大量的资金和物资不遗余力地支持非洲大陆上的反苏势力，原先毫无悬念的安哥拉、莫桑比克内战，突然之间变得猛烈而又旷日持久，埃塞俄比亚境内的厄立特里亚独立武装也变得除之不尽。这三个国家逐渐也演变成美国和苏联角力的战场，战争的残酷性远远超过中越边界和柬埔寨，差不多有200万以上的人死亡，这样的损失连阿富汗战争都望尘莫及。可悲的是非洲三国跟越南一样毫无工业基础，所有的战争费用也得苏联买单。所以，苏联在阿富汗、柬埔寨和中越边界以外又不得不背上另外三场战争的长期消耗。

　　局势发展到这一步已经对苏联极为不利了，苏联没想到对越南的慷慨援助在极短的时间内就让自己的阵营爆发这么多的叛乱，还一下子触发6场反对自己的猛烈战争，而且中东和东欧随时还可能爆发第7、第8场战争。6场已经开打的战争除了阿富汗战争以外，其余5场都跟苏联远隔千山万水，不仅代价一个个奇高，而且都看不到取胜的任何希望，因为苏联面对的对手实在太强。6场战争中的4场（阿富汗、安哥拉、莫桑比克、埃塞俄比亚）其实是苏联跟美国在角逐，2场（中越边界、柬埔寨）其实是苏联在跟中国角逐，尽管中美没有签署书面的同盟协议，但实际发生的事情就是中美在联手对抗苏联，苏联毫无取胜的希望。这样的局面苏联能选择的出路只有一条，那就是象古巴导弹危机后搞掉赫鲁晓夫一样迅速搞掉勃列日涅夫，不管是政变还是谋杀，越快越好，然后寻求与中美达成某种妥协，这样兴许还能保住苏联的世界帝国地位。但是苏联这样的国家搞掉赫鲁晓夫那样聪明的人非常聪明得力，对付勃列日涅夫这样愚蠢的人则非常愚蠢无能，大概上帝就是想让苏联消亡，勃列日涅夫在克里姆林宫稳坐钓鱼台，继续竭尽全力地维持这场对苏联越来越不利的对抗，从而有条不紊地把苏联一步步推向坟墓。

　　1982年11月，心力交瘁的勃列日涅夫病逝，他只活了76岁。不到4年，黎笋也撒手人寰，他也只活了79岁。两人都是被自己狂妄而又愚蠢的政策拖累死的，死也没有得到本国人民的原谅。接替勃列日涅夫的两个苏联老人也不能跳出勃列日涅夫思维的桎梏，仅仅2年多也先后在拚命维持勃列日涅夫留下的烂摊子中活活累死。等1985年3月戈尔巴乔夫上台时局势已无法挽回，苏联再也不可能有赫鲁晓夫那样的人来力挽狂澜了，乳臭未干的戈尔巴乔夫在内外交困中苦苦挣扎了6年，最后还是眼睁睁地看着苏联崩溃而毫无办法。在越南，接替了黎笋的长征想从根本上改变黎笋的战略，无奈黎笋长期执政产生的惯性太大，心力交瘁的长征不到半年就被迫下台，2年后也含恨去逝，越南只好在血泊和眼泪中继续挣扎。好在越南领导层还保留了一些赫鲁晓夫式的人物，1991年，摆平了内部纷争的阮文灵北上中国求和，重新又回到了中国的怀抱。越南虽然屈辱地放弃了柬埔寨和老挝，但是也成功地避免了国家再次分裂。时隔16年，越南又回到了1975年国家刚刚统一时的位置，这个冲动的少年多年来的不理智几乎把自己搞残，等他柱着拐杖好不容易重新站起来时，打败美国时的豪情壮志已荡然无存，为争取独立自由而赢得的世界性尊重也随风而去，他再也不去做什么取代中国的美梦了，而是老老实实地躲到地球的角落里抚平身上一道道深深的创伤。

　　越南以外的苏联其他卫星国、小伙伴也是树倒胡狲散，东欧国家在苏联崩溃以前就已经纷纷推翻各自的亲苏政权，迫不及待地加入了西方阵营。阿富汗、非洲的亲苏政权也一个个塌台，不是倒向西方就是陷入分裂。整个苏联东方集团土崩瓦解，连苏联自己也开始四分五裂，随着苏联的消失，冷战作为一个名词也进了历史档案袋。

　　谁也没想到世界局势在1991年发生如此天翻地覆的变化，但人们依旧只注意结果不追究原因。其实苏联崩溃的最直接原因是对外战略的失误诱发了国内各种矛盾猛烈爆发，在大规模援助越南以前，苏联的对外政策是非常谨慎的，斯大林在柏林危机、朝鲜战争中，赫鲁晓夫在第二次中东战争、非洲独立风潮、古巴导弹危机中，勃列日涅夫在越南战争、第三、第四次中东战争中，都不敢在境外豪赌，苏联就象一只刺猬缩成一团，不仅美国无从下口，自己内部出现问题也好解决。但是越南战争胜利后苏联就失去了原有的冷静，不仅在世界各地到处扩张，挤占美国人收缩后空出的地盘，而且想用越南挤压中国的活动空间。这只北极熊让一连串眼花缭乱的诱惑搞昏了头，跳出自己冰天雪地的老巢，跑到热带草原上抢肉吃了。她身躯还不够强健，热带的阳光和风雨让她气喘吁吁，但她仍霸着抢来的肉冲不远处的两只雄狮（中国和美国）呲牙。这可都是两只雄狮家门口不远的肥肉，北极熊焉能不被撕散架？！

　　越南就是两头狮子最先开咬的地方，可笑的还是越南先去招惹其中的一头狮子。尽管这头狮子个子比较小，但是却更狡猾，动作更灵敏。所以，苏联在管不住越南的情况下又对越南大量援助，无论对己对人都是极不负责任的行为，以后的苏联就是在徒劳地堵越南人桶出的天大娄子，把越来越多的负担强压在国内人民头上，还让他们看不到尽头。最终，忍无可忍的苏联人民起来造反，苏联帝国随之轰然倒塌。仔细回味一下苏联倒塌的全过程，就会发现一个关键的转折点就是1979年邓小平发动的中越战争。如果邓小平当年没有对越南下黑手，全世界的人恐怕到现在也不会相信苏联和越南原来如此虚弱，不仅美国不会那么快下决心跟苏联死磕，苏联阵营里那些心怀鬼胎的小伙伴更是不可能跳出来冲主人舞枪弄棒。没有中越战争，冷战很可能到现在还在持续，直到将来另一个邓小平发现苏联的另一次重大失误。所以说邓小平似乎就是为苏联灭亡而生的，他用16天的短促战争就把苏联这个伟大的帝国撬上了冲向悬崖的不归路！

（七）邓小平的贡献和中越战争的地位

　　1997年2月，邓小平去逝。2004年6月，里根去逝。这两个心照不宣地对抗苏联的战友都活了93岁，两人与勃列日涅夫和黎笋是同时代的人，却比后者多活了10几年。两人联手终结了冷战，并且分别让各自的祖国受益匪浅：中国实现了经济腾飞，在世界重新崛起；美国独霸全球，达到了历史的鼎盛。现在的中国和美国不客气地说仍在享受邓小平和里根留下的老本。今后的历史学家怎样评价邓小平和里根不得而知，不过相对而言，邓小平的魅力肯定更大一些，他在对越战争中表现出来的智慧、眼光和胆量是里根不具备的，里根在很大程度上是在搭邓小平的顺路车，他缺乏邓小平那样的创造性思维。是邓小平创造了中越战争这种新的国际斗争模式：集中全部力量在极短的时间内尽可能多地消灭对方人员，毁坏基础设施，然后迅速撤回，选取几块于己有利、于敌不利的地方继续给对方施加压力，迫使对方在极为不利的情况下长期跟自己拚消耗，直到把对方彻底拖垮。这种模式在小的战术要点上是短促的、极端猛烈的，而在大的战略层面上则相对温和一些，不以一次性彻底压倒对方为手段和目的，而是用套住对方慢慢勒紧绳索的办法，迫使对方内部发生嬗变，主动向自己求和。相对来说，这是一种比较人性的征服。

　　有人说邓小平的对越战争是在模仿毛泽东17年前对印战争的策略，但是仔细对比一下就会发现，中国的对印战争只是做了邓小平前半段做的事情，但是由于当时国力的局限，以后在边境并没有继续对印度保持压力，所以中印战争的收效远不如中越战争，印度仍然无所顾忌地发动两次印巴战争拆散巴基斯坦，中国对此则无可奈何。也有人说邓小平是在模仿以色列的第三次中东战争，但是以色列人在1967年比邓小平贪得无厌得多，占着阿拉伯的大片领土就是不撤，结果以后在阿拉伯人的反击下差点亡国。所以邓小平的战略战术跟以色列人的也有天壤之别。这种新的战略战术有着严格的时间、地域限制，超出这一限制，事情的发展就会走向反面。以色列人1982年发动的第五次中东战争，美国人1986年出兵利比亚、1991年发动海湾战争，俄罗斯人2008年出兵格鲁几亚，多多少少都是在模仿邓小平的战略战术，均取得重大成功。但是2003年的伊拉克战争中美国人突破这一时间地域限制的尝试就遭到了失败，美军攻进伊拉克就长期赖在那里不走了，结果在遭受了一连串的打击后还是灰溜溜地撤了出来。事实证明，美国人冲进去自己把萨达姆活捉后干掉的办法，远不如邓小平在外面把黎笋活活搞死高明。邓小平对付越南的战略战术有着丰富的内涵，可谓开辟了一个新时代，21世纪的大战略家应该好好研究。

　　可惜的是现在西方的学者和专家对邓小平和中越战争完全持一种漠视态度，没有看清现在的世界正是1979年邓小平的一意孤行造成的。他们除了喧宾夺主、连篇累牍地赞扬里根、老布什、斯瓦茨科普夫及海湾战争、伊拉克战争以外，极少量关注中越战争的宣传就是在宣扬中国在局部遭受的那些无关痛痒的挫折，拚命向全世界暗示中国在战争中遭到了失败。但是这样的宣传在被他们无限吹捧的越南人那里都得不到共鸣，如果时间还能倒流，越南人是绝不会再去尝试中越战争那样的“胜利”的，而中国人则会100%地再来一次“失败”。西方人忘了，1979年战争开始以前，全世界（包括越南）都认为中国军队不是越南军队的对手，在这种氛围下邓小平对越南发动那样规模的战争所具有的胆略，是西方没有的，或者说全世界只有邓小平一个人看清了越南的份量有多重。以后的事实证明邓小平判断准确，而其他所有的人都看走了眼。无奈曲高和寡、第一只从地上站起来看世界的猴子会被同伴杀死，西方媒体带头顽固地坚持：所有人看错的事不可能是错事！中国人打败让美国吃败仗的越南？纯粹一派胡言！但是不管我们怎么傲慢地辩解，可怜可悲的都是我们自己，不是中国人。

　　中越战争是中国第一次越过国际公认的边界线主动攻击一个主权国家，而且取得了完胜，这对中国和世界都不是一件小事，具有划时代的意义。回顾20世纪中国的对外冲突，无论中日战争、朝鲜战争、中印边境战争，中国都是在被动地应付，没有主动出击的能力和勇气。可是中越战争就完全不同了，这是第一次中国强加给别人的战争。就战争的代价和收效说，前三次战争跟中越战争都不在一个等级上：对日战争让中国境内遭受历史上最严重的一次破坏，中国人自称伤亡3500万人，结果只不过是将侵略者赶走，中国并没有得到相应的补偿；朝鲜战争中国军人死亡超过18万人，虽然可以说战胜了美军，但是并没有动摇美国在世界上的地位，也没有打破美国对中国的封锁和包围；中印边境战争虽然以微小的伤亡把印度人完全击溃，但是中国人并没能收复失地，也没能阻止印度在南亚次大陆坐大。但是中越战争就完全不同了，不管越南人如何宣染自己，西方如何贬低中国，中国在这场为期28天的战争中死亡的军人也不可能超过1万，就是加上以后10年的边境冲突，中国的死亡人数也只勉勉强强超过1万。但是这场战争给越南造成的损失却是惊人的，越南因此永远失去了在中南半岛和东南亚的主导发言权。另一个更大的收获是，中国把自己最大的威胁——另一个超级大国苏联挑下了马，这可是拿破仑和希特勒毕其一生、倾尽全力都没能做到的事情！所以中越战争不仅表明中国的实力今非昔比，更表明中国在国际争斗中的战略思维和指导艺术，已经达到了一个相当高明的程度，这后一个传递出来的信息对我们西方更加危险！

　　还有一些西方文章在嘲笑中国在20世纪70年代打了一场一战式的落后战争，不知这些作者是想欺骗中国人民还是想欺骗自己的人民。中国在1979年时不是苏联和美国那样的超级大国，不可能打苏联和美国才能打的高技能的现代化战争。尽管如此，中国人在战争中表现出来的组织动员能力，战略战役战术的指挥水平仍然让人吃惊。我们西方从1945年至1979年从未打过中越战争那样的高水平战争，只有以色列的第三次中东战争有点象，但是后患无穷。我们的领袖美国在越南进行的战争可谓先进得不能再先进了，但事实证明那是一场蠢得不能再蠢的战争。现代战争打的是硬件，更是软件，我们西方十分缺乏邓小平那样的软件思维能力，我们吹嘘的伊拉克战争在技术上堪称引领21世纪，但是在战略思维上却连19世纪的水平都达不到。

　　中国这块能够培养出邓小平的土地实在可怕，靠着邓小平谋略的滋润，中国现在的实力已远远超过1979年时的苏联，任何嘲笑中国对外扩张影响的努力都是在自欺欺人。我们不能指望中国也出一个勃列日涅夫或者黎笋，那跟中国再出一个邓小平一样对我们西方是灾难，因为我们不能指望中国以外的国家也出一个邓小平对付新的“苏联”。我们西方在冷战中就已经陷入思维枯竭的怪圈，完全是靠邓小平的出奇制胜才战胜了苏联。冷战以后我们在谋略方面仍然没有多少改进，伊拉克和阿富汗的失败就是明显的例子，中国人现在已经在跟俄国人玩两掐一的新游戏，我们却还在走上世纪50年代围堵中国的老路，没有什么象样的创造性谋略。从1991年冷战结束到现在22年过去了，从那时起我们就一直把中国视为最大的威胁，可是尽管数不清的智库和决策头脑想出了更加数不清的削弱甚至摧毁中国的奇思妙想，但是却没能谋划出一件能与中越战争媲美的关键行动，中国发展扩张得比1991年更难对付。这种状况发展下去让人怀疑：即使我们成功地对中国实施了中越战争那样的战略打击，我们是否还有能力让中国短短12年就象苏联那样崩溃？！

现在对我们西方威胁最大的就是傲慢掩盖下的无能，邓小平在成功后还说不能小视越南，我们就不能象他那样放下架子好好研究一下邓小平？研究一下产生邓小平的中国？要是还在过去的老路上徘徊，以后的世界真可能就不是我们西方的了！

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